Three hundred and sixty watermelons made for one of Collette Holgate's more memorable days in her work as site manager for Stratford's transfer station.
"The guy selling them, his refrigeration broke down," she explains, "so he had to bring them here." Collette first gave them out to anyone coming in that day to dump their rubbish, and then she rang local pig farmers asking if they wanted them.
This is the sort of work story that Collette has plenty of, from the two doves dropped off (that she re-homed) to the collection of albums all from 1976 which Collette offered to the record company.
Shaking her head at some of the stuff people throw out, Collette comments with pride about all "the young fellas' flats I've furnished through town".
In 2010, this "commitment to effective reuse and recycling of resources" was recognised by Taranaki Regional Council, who gave the transfer station an Environmental Award, commenting on the "clean, tidy park-like environment that Collette Holgate has created".